3408, 3417, 3445 SPAIN (Community of Madrid) - Royal Palace of Madrid

3408 Royal Palace of Madrid and Almudena Cathedral

Located on Bailén Street, in the western part of downtown Madrid, east of the Manzanares River, the Royal Palace of Madrid is the official residence of the Spanish royal family, although now only used for state ceremonies. The palace has 135,000 square metres of floor space and contains 3,418 rooms, being the largest functioning royal palace and the largest by floor area in Europe. The last monarch who lived continuously in the palace was King Alfonso XIII, although Manuel Azaña, president of the Second Republic, also inhabited it.

3417 Royal Palace of Madrid - Gasparini Room (18th-19th centuries)

The interior of the palace is notable for its wealth of art and the use of many types of fine materials in the construction and the decoration of its rooms. It includes paintings by artists such as Caravaggio, Juan de Flandes, Francisco de Goya, and Velázquez, and frescoes by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Corrado Giaquinto, and Anton Raphael Mengs. Other collections of great historical and artistic importance preserved in the building include the Royal Armoury of Madrid, porcelain, watches, furniture, silverware, and the world's only complete Stradivarius string quintet.

3445 Royal Palace of Madrid - The kitchen of Ramillete 

The palace is located on the site of a 9th-century Alcázar (Muslim-era fortress), near the town of Magerit, constructed as an outpost by Muhammad I of Córdoba and inherited after 1036 by the independent Moorish Taifa of Toledo. After Madrid fell to King Alfonso VI of Castile in 1083, the edifice was only rarely used by the kings of Castile. In 1329, King Alfonso XI of Castile convened the cortes of Madrid for the first time. King Felipe II moved his court to Madrid in 1561.

3427 SPAIN (Community of Madrid) - Almudena Cathedral

Consecrated by Pope John Paul II in 1993, Almudena Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Madrid. Plans to build a cathedral in Madrid dedicated to the Virgin of Almudena were discussed as early as the 16th century but even though Spain built more than 40 cities in the new world during that century, the cost of expanding and keeping the Empire came first and the construction of Madrid's cathedral was postponed. Because making the cathedral the largest that the world had ever seen was a priority, the construction of Almudena only began in 1879.

2667 SPAIN (Community of Madrid) - The monument to Cervantes in Madrid

As is well known, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He owes his fame to Don Quixote, considered to be the first modern novel, and one of the best works of fiction ever written. In Plaza de España (Spanish for Square of Spain), located in central Madrid, is a monument to Cervantes, designed by architects Rafael Martínez Zapatero and Pedro Muguruza and sculptor Lorenzo Coullaut Valera.

0624 SPAIN (Community of Madrid) - Monastery and Site of the Escurial, Madrid (UNESCO WHS)

Originally a property of the Hieronymite monks, now a monastery of the Order of Saint Augustine, the Royal Seat of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is an historical residence of the King of Spain, located in the town with the same name, about 45km northwest of Madrid, at the foot of Mt. Abantos in the Sierra de Guadarrama. It comprises two architectural complexes of great historical and cultural significance: the royal monastery itself and La Granjilla de La Fresneda, a royal hunting lodge and monastic retreat.

0371 SPAIN (Community of Madrid) - University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá de Henares (UNESCO WHS)

Much can be said about Alcalá de Henares (Citadel on the river Henares), located at 35 km northeast of the city of Madrid. If you ask a historian to give some briefly information about this city, will say that due to the strategic position of the river Henares' valley there existed over time a Celtiberian settlement called Iplacea, then the Roman Municipium of Complutum, subsequently occupied by the Visigoths, and finally a moorish citadel (al-qal'a means even "citadel" in Arabic), today known as Alcalá la Vieja (Old Alcalá), conquered  in 1118 by the Christians. An architect would talk about the wonderful Isabelline Gothic style of the Cathedral-Magistral of Saints Justus and Pastor, and about the Universitas Complutensis, which will influence, from the architectural point of view but not only, many subsequent academic institutions, until in nowadays.